The NFL draft is still three months away, plenty of time to parse every word spoken or written about the Lions and the No. 1 pick.

One tidbit I found interesting came from Peter King's always thorough Monday Morning Quarterback column on SportsIllustrated.com. King asked former Browns general manager Phil Savage to provide some insight on all things Senior Bowl. From Savage:

“First pick in the draft? If it's Detroit, and Jim Schwartz is talking about Bobby Layne, and the offensive coordinator is Scott Linehan, who wants a big, strong-thrower, I'd say the big strong QB with a strong arm would be the pick. Matthew Stafford is big and throws the ball so well. It's a pretty easy guess.”

Don't go betting the house on Stafford in Honolulu blue just yet, but this is the same Savage who the Lions wanted for their front-office opening (and the same Savage who “has resisted overtures” according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer). Savage knows Schwartz well from their days in Cleveland, and he's dead on about Linehan's taste in quarterback.

Now the contrarian viewpoint, Lions general manager Martin Mayhew has final say on all things draft. He was asked a week and a half ago about Schwartz's “Layne” comment and the commonly-held NFL belief (shared by the new Lions coach) that quarterback is the trump-card position in football.

“I think it's an extremely important position but I don't think you have to have Bobby Layne or Peyton Manning,” Mayhew said. “You have to have a guy who's playing very efficiently and a guy who's being very productive to have a chance to win. You have guys like Brad Johnson who go to a Super Bowl and win it. You have guys like Rex Grossman a couple years ago in a Super Bowl. You have guys who are not known as perennial Pro Bowlers or Hall of Famers, but they perform at a high level. It's how that guy's performing.”

When pointed out he's championing a temporary solution not guaranteed success for the long term – Johnson missed the playoffs a year after leading Tampa Bay to its championship, and Grossman has made eight starts in the two years since his Super Bowl XLI appearance – Mayhew said, “That's the counter argument to it. To me, you have to have a guy that's performing at a high level.”

Now that the Lions have hired a head coach, they can concentrate on filling the vacancy in their front office.

New general manager Martin Mayhew said Friday he wants an experienced talent evaluator as his right-hand man and hopes to have that person in place in the coming weeks. That likely would exclude anyone currently under contract as most teams won't let their scouts/front-office executives go until after the draft.

“We're going to build the position around the person's strengths, whoever that person is,” Mayhew said. “It'll happen over the next few weeks and we've been talking to a lot of qualified candidates. So we'll add some experienced people, some seasoned people to our team, but we feel good about our group right now.”

Among the names reported to be under consideration are former Browns general manager Phil Savage, former Jaguars vice-president of player personnel Shack Harris and ex-Broncos general manager Ted Sundquist.

“Experience is good,” Mayhew said. “I respect that, and we want experienced people who've been through a lot, seen a lot, done a lot of trades, been through a lot of drafts, seen a lot of players. I think that's important.”

Mayhew said April's draft, where the Lions have five of the first 82 picks, is “probably the most important draft that we've ever had as an organization.”

“So I think it would be important for that person to have some background in college scouting, to have done some college scouting and to be very competent in that area,” he said. “But again, it could be somebody with a primarily pro-scouting background. But it will be somebody who is a solid evaluator and who has a history and a good track record.”

The Lions won't have to wait to hire Titans defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz if they want him as their next head coach.

Schwartz, who interviewed last week during Tennessee's first-round playoff bye, is eligible to be hired for any head-coaching vacancy now that the Titans have been eliminated from the playoffs. Had Tennessee beat Baltimore yesterday, teams would have had to wait until the Titans' postseason was over to offer Schwartz a job.

So far, it's my understanding that Schwartz has only interviewed with the Lions. The Browns were granted permission to speak with the 42-year-old assistant, but canceled due to scheduling problems. The Rams also might be interested in Schwartz, but have not moved to interview him yet. Last year, Schwartz was a candidate for jobs in Miami, Washington and Atlanta, where new Rams general manager Billy Devaney was on the search committee.

As I pointed out in a blog posting a couple days ago, anecdotal evidence suggests the earlier a team makes a hire in the offseason the more chance that coach has of success. (In 2006, the five coaches hired before Rod Marinelli all made the playoffs. Marinelli plus two of the four coaches hired after him already have been fired.)

If the Lions are comfortable with their pool of candidates – Schwartz, Vikings defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier, Dolphins assistant head coach Todd Bowles, etc. – there's no sense waiting to interview a candidate like Ravens defensive coordinator Rex Ryan, a hot name who might prefer another job (Jets, Rams) but who might not be able to accept any position until February.

Also, NFL.com reported that veteran executives Phil Savage (ex-Browns GM) and Shack Harris (former VP of player personnel with the Jaguars) have been contacted about joining the Lions' front office. I mentioned Harris as a possibility before when I thought Brian Billick was a candidate to be head coach. I still think he (and Savage, for that matter) would make a great addition for their experience dealing with personnel matters. Harris was a part of building winners in Baltimore and Jacksonville. He helped uncover late-round gems in both places and helped build two pretty good defenses. If he's interested, the Lions should snap him up.